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THERE is a line in Best Interests that haunts me. In the first episode of this four-part BBC drama, a doctor (Kevin Eldon) tells Nicci and Andrew Lloyd that their baby daughter is unlikely to lead a long life. “Please don’t assume that Marnie’s story is going to be any less beautiful,” he says. “It’ll just be different, and you have to adapt to that difference. And you’ll find such joy if you do.”
Marnie (Niamh Moriarty) has a severe form of muscular dystrophy, a degenerative condition with no cure. She has grown into a funny, sweet-tempered 13-year-old. When Marnie is in good health, Nicci and Andrew (Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen) are two big kids who seem settled in their love.
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Returning from a rare holiday away from Marnie and her older sister Katie (Alison Oliver), they find Marnie has developed a life-threatening chest infection and their hard-won peace unravels.
Marnie’s doctor Samantha (Noma Dumezweni) tells the Lloyds that Marnie’s body is failing and further treatments will be ineffective and unpleasant. Nicci and Andrew are forced to consider whether Marnie should be allowed to die. While Nicci decides to take the hospital to court, Andrew wrestles with his growing belief that Marnie is in a lot of pain. Their marriage begins to buckle.
This is, naturally, a devastating series. But Best Interests isn’t inspiration porn or a maudlin morality play built on a pitying view of Marnie and her disability. Flashbacks show moments of great joy as Marnie learns dance routines and watches make-up tutorials, races her mother in her wheelchair and covets her sister’s poster of actor Daniel Kaluuya.
Crucially, writer Jack Thorne – himself a disability activist – has shown that her world is enriched by having other people with disabilities around her, such as her cheeky friend George (Lenny Rush), who asks her on a date to the cinema. Such depictions are vanishingly rare on television.
Marnie’s life has been full of pleasure and love, and she has brought delight to all around her. But her family have been living with the same question for more than a decade: when will they have to mourn Marnie?
Horgan and Sheen are terrific, giving layered, subtle performances, but it is Oliver who is particularly affecting. Katie is ebbing away. Treated as an emotional equal by her parents, she must bear their pain without expressing her own. Moriarty, too, who has cerebral palsy in real life, paints a vivid picture of Marnie despite her restricted screentime.
The series is a project of great nuance all round. Nicci’s cruel words to her husband that he has always wanted Marnie dead don’t detract from her fiercely loving side; Andrew’s cowardly tendencies and his anger at Katie when she asks for support don’t stop him from being a good father.
There are no villains here except for the effects of systematic underfunding on UK medical systems, particularly during the covid-19 pandemic. What begins as a personal story crystallises into a condemnation of the ways people with disabilities have been failed time and again.
But Best Interests also offers sympathy to all involved in the difficult decisions about Marnie’s care. More importantly, it shows the capabilities of TV as what Thorne called , a way to provoke discussion, bring joy and tell the stories of those who are too often dismissed.
Bethan also recommends…
BBC2 film
Netflix
Based on the true story of Barbara Lisicki and Alan Handsworth, who met, fell in love and were among the founders of the Disabled People’s Direct Action Network in the 1990s.
BBC iPlayer
Lenny Rush (see main article) won a BAFTA for his scene-stealing role as Ollie in this comedy-thriller. Daisy May-Cooper is his mother, hiding dark secrets from her mysterious new friend.
Bethan Ackerley is a subeditor at 91av. She loves sci-fi, sitcoms and anything spooky. She is still upset about the ending of Game of Thrones. Follow her on Twitter @inkerley
